


Sleeping In

by almostblue (fictionalaspect)



Series: B.A.P short fics [11]
Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: BFFs, College AU, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Insomnia, M/M, Pre-Slash, Roommates, even if they don't know it yet, look they just love each other okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:39:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalaspect/pseuds/almostblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Himchan has a new roommate, Yongguk is an insomniac, and this is just dumb BangHim being dumb and adorable at each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping In

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as either pre-slash or just BFF fic. I didn't really have either intention in mind. 
> 
> (Actually I meant to write an entirely different story about Yongguk's insomnia but this is what happened.)

It takes Himchan three weeks to realize that his new roommate isn't just bad at sleeping--he's an actual, certified insomniac.

It could be worse, Himchan thinks, wincing in the light that's revealed as he shoves open Yongguk's bedroom door. He could have been paired with an axe murderer. Or a neat freak.  
Or...well, or an axe murderer. 

"It's 4am," Himchan mumbles, when Yongguk blinks at him and then takes his headphones off. "Do you _ever_ sleep?"

Yongguk looks at him for a long moment. Himchan knows they didn't get off to the best start, but he's tired and he's cranky and whatever Yongguk is sampling in his cluttered mess of a music studio-turned-bedroom is reverberating through their shared wall and making Himchan's teeth rattle. If Yongguk wants to fight, Himchan is very willing to fight. He is willing to do a lot of things to make that BOOM-CLAP-BOOM-BOOM-CLAP noise stop. Selling his body and illegal drug running come to mind. 

"Not really," Yongguk says eventually. He's wearing a snapback and a tank top and basketball shorts. Himchan should probably be grateful that he even showers. His last roommate didn't shower. That was bad. That was a previously unknown level of bad and now that Yongguk is here, Himchan would like him to just stop being so fucking _weird_ all the time so Himchan won't have to place another ad online. 

"See when you said you didn't sleep," Himchan says, when Yongguk seems disinclined to continue the conversation. "I thought you meant like. Ha-ha, you didn't sleep much. Like it was a figure of speech."

Yongguk tilts his head. "I don't really use those," he says, after a long pause. That pause is another thing on Himchan's ever growing list of Problems with Bang Yongguk. It's like there's this loading screen between when Himchan talks to him, and when he actually responds. "Idioms, I mean. Figures of speech." 

"I've noticed," Himchan says. He's never heard a finished version of Yongguk's music. He wonders if it's all in simple sentences, like some avant-garde grad student ~thing~ supposed to make the listener ~question the meaning of life~. He can absolutely imagine Yongguk rapping something like that. 

It's nice out today  
unlike your face  
and if I had a million won  
I'd get me outta this place  
u nam mean  
uhhh  
u nam mean  
chyeah

(Himchan may possibly also have a bit of a grudge over the sound engineering department's budget getting increased again this year, while the traditional music department's budget got cut. _Again_.)

"Himchan?" Yongguk is frowning at him in concern. "Are you okay? You kind of just...slumped over for a second."

"Because I'm tired," Himchan snaps, straightening up and rubbing at his eyes. "Because it's four in the morning, you fucking dipshit, and if I have to listen to that beat one more time I am throwing your record player out the window so _turn it the fuck down_ and take some sleeping pills like a normal human being." 

Yongguk stares at him, concern creasing his forehead. "You can hear that? I didn't think..."

"I'm a percussionist," Himchan says witheringly. "Yes. Yes, I can hear that. Now Go. To. Bed." He slaps the light switch on the door when he leaves, plunging Yongguk's room into darkness.

By the time he gets back to his own room, the insufferable backbeat is gone. Himchan falls face-first into his own pillow and wonders if maybe he was overly harsh. Like, maybe he shouldn't have threatened Yongguk's stuff. 

Nah, Himchan thinks, rolling over and settling into his own, blessedly quiet bed with a sigh. 

\--

Himchan reconsiders after he doesn't see Yongguk for the next two days. The door to his room is wide open, so it's not like he's hiding out in some passive-aggressive snit. Himchan isn't sure if Yongguk even understands the concept of passive-aggressive. He gets that Yongguk is a deep conceptual _artiste_ and everything, but he's also pretty transparent. So far Himchan has cataloged a deep and complex range of four emotions in his new roommate: artistic obliviousness, hunger, frustration, and confusion. 

If Yongguk is hiding out, it's because he's hiding from Himchan.

Himchan sighs, standing up from the baby grand in the classical arts building and stretching his arms out over his head. He leans over and touches his toes, too, just for good measure, and when he's run out of body parts to stretch he goes to wander around the sound engineering studios and find his roommate. 

He stops at a snack cart and picks up two cups of coffee, because he's finally mastered a particularly hard section and he's feeling generous. Also, Yongguk's absence has allowed him to catch up on his sleep debt. Himchan is practically feeling _cheerful_ again. His freshman music seminar this morning hadn't known what had hit them. 

Himchan wanders around the sound recording hallways until he spies a familiar Obey hoodie with an Adidas snapback jammed on top of it. The booths are sound-proofed, but he waits until the vibration through the doorway dies down before knocking on the window anyway. 

Yongguk jumps, blinking, looking around with wide eyes before spying Himchan in the doorway. His expression starts to take on a particularly deer-in-headlights look. Himchan rolls his eyes and waves Yongguk's coffee cup through the tiny window as a peace offering.

"Hi," Himchan says, thrusting the coffee at Yongguk as soon as Yongguk presses the button to unlock the door. "Sorry about the other night. Please come home so I know you're not sleeping on the street and selling your DJ skills to unscrupulous club owners who only want you for your body." 

Yongguk cracks a smile, hiding it behind the lid of his coffee. "Um," he says. "No. I just. I stayed with some friends." 

"Friends." Himchan looks over at Yongguk's duffle bag, stashed against the fall wall of the tiny cubicle. As far as Himchan knows, Yongguk doesn't have any friends. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but Yongguk has dark circles under his eyes and the trashcan in the cubicle is stuffed full of ramen cups and takeout meals. "Would those friends be named Sound Board, Bass, and Staccato?" 

Yongguk colors. "I--"

Himchan sighs. "Oppaaaa," deadpans, perching on the side of Yongguk's chair like an old movie starlet. He makes his small eyes as round as possible, and sticks out his lower lip in a pout. "You know I didn't mean it. Come home, okay? I've got my best dress all laid out and everything. I even made your favorite meal!" 

Yongguk stares at him in total confusion. 

Himchan wants to see how far he can push this, but when reaches out to brush his fingers lovingly over Yongguk's cheek, he loses it and starts cracking up. Yongguk looks shell shocked for a moment, and then suddenly he's setting down his coffee and laughing harder than Himchan has ever seen him laugh before. 

"I'm fucking with you," Himchan says. He can feel how wide he's grinning, but Yongguk's real laugh is gummy and dorky and kind of adorable. "In case that wasn't clear. I didn't cook you dinner." 

Yongguk licks his lips, biting down on another peel of laughter that threatens to escape. "But you laid out your best dress," he says, taking another sip of coffee. His tone is hesitant, but his eyes are still smiling. "Baby." 

"You know it," Himchan says. "Now. Show me what this thing is that's kept you up for almost three days, and then let's go home and get takeout and then I'll drug you into submission." 

"Uhm--"

"With sleeping pills," Himchan says quickly, and then realizes he's digging himself even deeper. "I meant--I mean. Not. Oh, shut up and just push play," he says crankily, now that Yongguk is laughing to himself again. Himchan reaches over and queues up the track, and then clicks the mouse to start the music. 

Himchan listens to the entire song in silence, clearing his throat only when the music cuts off. Yongguk is busy looking down at his sound board, adjusting controls that Himchan knows for a fact aren't even turned on.

"Okay, I hate that beat slightly less now," Himchan acknowleges. He doesn't say what he's really thinking, which is that he wasn't prepared for Yongguk to be an actual genius instead of just another pretentious grad student. Himchan is well acquainted with pretentious grad students. He's considered printing it on his business cards before. "Did you sing all of that? And write all those lyrics?"

"No. It's a project I'm working on with some, uh, friends. I can't sing for shit." Yongguk grins up at Himchan, bright and disarming. "That other guy, though? He's a fucking prodigy. He's _sixteen_. Can you believe that? He's not even in the program yet." 

"The other guy rapping?" Himchan can feel his eyebrows nearing his hairline. He's no expert on vocal technique, but he knows talent when he hears it. "He's still in _high school_?"

"Yeah," Yongguk says. "I'm, um. I'm kind of mentoring him and stuff? He's a good kid. I was going to ask if maybe...he could like...come by some time? If it's okay with you," he says quickly, looking up at Himchan. "I just...don't think he has it too easy at school. He's sort of." Yongguk scratches the back of his neck through his hoodie. "Awkward."

"Sure," Himchan says. He tries not to feel like the terrible human being who has apparently been pissing in Bang Yongguk-the-saintly-genius-role-model's Cheerios for the past month. "Yeah. You can bring people over whenever, you know. I don't care." 

"Oh," Yongguk nods. "Okay."

"Actually no, I'm amending that," Himchan says. "No one after midnight unless we're all drunk, or it's a booty call. I retain my right to be a cranky asshole when I don't get my beauty sleep." 

"I'm sorry," Yongguk says miserably. "I've never been able to sleep. And then I always get the best ideas late at night, and--"

"Oh my god, save the sob story, I was an asshole, you're an insomniac, it's okay," Himchan says, tugging on Yongguk's arm. "It's 7pm. Let's go get chicken and beer somewhere. On me." 

"But--"

"No buts," Himchan says firmly, slinging Yongguk's duffle back over his shoulder and poking at him until Yongguk slowly gathers his things up. "Come on. Move it, genius boy. We have five hours before the clock strikes twelve and I turn into a really bitchy pumpkin."

\--

"You," Himchan says, pointing unsteadily at Yongguk across their kitchen table. "You need a nickname. Everyone has a nickname."

" _You_ don't have a nickname," Yongguk says. His hat is off and he's leaning back in his chair, hair mussed and beer dangling from his fingers. Himchan has never seen him look so relaxed. He's has discovered more things about Yongguk in the past few hours than he has in all the weeks they've lived together. Himchan is considering screening all prospective roommates at norebangs from now on. 

"Yes I do," Himchan says, with great dignity. Their bottle of soju is around here somewhere. It's--oh, there it is. Next to his foot. They must have knocked it over. "Did you knock over the soju?"

"I don't know," Yongguk laughs. His face is bright red. He looks happy. It's a nice look on him. "Maybe." 

"Whatever." Himchan shrugs, uncapping the bottle and taking a swig. "Anyway. I have nicknames. Like Channie! Channie is good."

Yongguk grins into his beer. "Jongup says he calls you Princess."

Himchan narrowly avoids spewing soju all over Yongguk's face. "Jongup?!" he says, barely remembering to recap the soju before he starts waving the bottle around. "Moon Jongup? That little bastard. That filthy little traitorous...wait, how the hell do _you_ know Jonguppie? He's only a freshman."

"He's Junhong's best friend," Yongguk says. Junhong, Himchan has learned, is the name of Yongguk's adorable mini-me rap prodigy. Himchan still wants to coo when he thinks about the pictures Yongguk had shown him on his phone. "I mentioned your name once and he got all excited and told me about how you grew up together." 

"Something like that," Himchan says, snorting. He takes another swig from the bottle. "Uppie's hyung and I are the same age, but Moon Jiseok is kind of..." Himchan scrunches his face up, trying to think of the word. He's very drunk. Words are hard. "An asshole," Himchan says, when he can't think of anything better to say. Yongguk guffaws. "But Uppie is a good kid. He started calling me Princess because his dickhead older brother used to, but Jiseok's in the army now. It's just a running joke." Himchan shakes his head. "That little bastard. I'm texting him when I'm sober enough to find my phone." 

"I think I left my phone at the bar," Yongguk says. 

"Let me call it," Himchan says. He pats himself down, checks his pockets, and then frowns as he rewinds the last few seconds of conversation. "Wait." 

Yongguk drains the last of his beer and shrugs, reaching into the six-pack on the table to grab a new one. "Tomorrow," he says. "Phones are just...things."

"Your face is just a thing." Himchan tries to remember what they were talking about in the first place. "So. Nicknames! You need one. I'm going to give you one." 

Yongguk pauses, his beer halfway to his mouth. "Guk isn't good enough?"

"No," Himchan says. Yongguk obviously has no conception of the important of nicknames. They are _bonding_. This is a _shared bonding experience_. If they can't take stupid selcas together and post them on the internet to prove that they are fascinating people with interesting lives, then the very least Yongguk can do is let Himchan give him a nickname. 

"Besides, I've been thinking about this," Himchan says grandly, losing the soju cap somewhere under the table and giving it up for dead. He takes another large swig. He can already feel future Himchan's hungover wrath. Himchan tells future Himchan to shove it, and keeps drinking. 

"How long have you been thinking about this?" Yongguk says, eyeing Himchan suspiciously. 

"Since like two hours ago," Himchan says, burping loudly and then wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "From now on, your new nickname is..." He taps a drumroll out on the table, laughing when Yongguk adds a backbeat. "Bbang!"

"Bbang?" Yongguk starts laughing, gummy and increduous. "Bbang?"

"Yes," Himchan says. He's actually very proud of this one. It had occurred to him somewhere around his fourth drink, as he'd watched the waiters rush back and forth outside the norebaeng rooms with piles of snacks and pitchers of beer and--most importantly--pizzas. Pizzas, which had looked delicious and had made Himchan suddenly decide that norebaeng was a fantastic idea and also made him laugh when he finally bit into his first slice and thought about how much he fucking loved all bread-related things ever.

"Do you like it?" Himchan reaches over and and pinches Yongguk's cheek. "Do you? Do you? Huh?"

"Sure," Yongguk says. He grins. "Bbanggggg," he says, drawing out the final syllable. "Bbaaaang. Bbang. Bba--"

"You are so drunk," Himchan laughs. "Bbang."

"So are you," Yongguk says. He's slowly sliding out of his chair, but he hasn't noticed yet. Himchan decides not to tell him. "Princess."

\--

Himchan wakes up on the couch with a pounding headache and a strangely heavy weight on his chest. His mouth tastes like socks. When he groans and tries to sit up, something punches him in the thigh. 

"Mrrgh," Himchan says, frowning and looking down. He pokes the back of Yongguk's head, which is lying on his chest, facing away from him. "Bbang?"

Yongguk mumbles something unintelligible. He tries to punch Himchan's leg again, but he misses and hits the couch instead. 

Himchan closes his eyes, because when he tries to sit up too fast, the room starts spinning. He gropes behind him instead, searching around on the side-table until his fingers close around a bottle of water. 

He downs most of it before he realizes he should probably offer it to the person currently sleeping on him. "Bbang?" Himchan mumbles, opening his eyes and then slouching down so that the back of the couch blocks the evil morning light coming in through the curtains. "You want some water?"

Himchan waits, but the only response he gets is a quiet snore. Yongguk's breathing is deep and even. He's obviously not going anywhere.

Himchan downs the rest of the bottle, and then chucks it somewhere over the back of the couch. He smells disgusting, like sweat and old beer, but so does Yongguk. It's not quite enough to make him wake Yongguk up. The guy hasn't sleep in like three days. Himchan knows he can be a pain in the ass, but he's not _that_ mean.

"Okay," he mumbles, blearily patting Yongguk's head as his eyes start to fall shut again. "Just this once, okay? Don't get used to this or anything."

Yongguk's only response is another quiet snore.


End file.
